1. The Beginning of English Literature
Anglo-Saxon Poetry
The Beginning of English Literature

2. The Major Manuscripts The Caedmon Manuscript The Exeter Book
“The Seafarer”
“The Wanderer”
The Vercelli Book
The Nowell Codex
Beowulf
Note that about 400 manuscripts survive that contain Old English text

3. Major forms of A-S Poetry
Heroic Poems
Beowulf
Elegiac Poems
“The Seafarer”
“The Wanderer”
Riddles
Latin Poems
Epigraphy
Oldest – Carved on the Franks Casket

4. Examples of A-S Poetry “The Seafarer” – The Exeter Book – Elegiac
“The Wanderer” – The Exeter Book – Elegiac
“The Seafarer” – The Exeter Book – Elegiac
“The Wife’s Lament” – The Exeter Book – Elegiac
Beowulf – The Nowell Codex – Heroic Epic Poem

5. Literary Devices of A-S Poetry
Alliteration
Kenning
Caesura
Ubi Sunt

6. Alliteration Anglo-Saxon Poetry does not rhyme
Anglo-Saxon Poetry is alliterative
Examples in Old English:
“þrymful þunie, | þragum wræce”
“fere geond foldan, | folcsalo bærne,”
Examples in Modern English:
“Head on knee, hand on knee, loyally laying,/ pledging his liege as in days long past.” (37-38)

7. Kennings
Usually a set of two nouns (sometime hyphenated, sometimes a noun and a prepositional phrase) that figuratively represents another noun.
Examples:
Whale road – the sea
Summer’s sentinel – a cuckoo
Storm of spears – a battle
Feeder of ravens – a warrior
Bee wolf – a bear

8. Caesura
A pause in the middle of a line of poetry, usually represented by a several blank spaces.
Examples:
“And I sailed away with sorrowful heart,” (22).
“Thus spake the sage in solitude pondering” (103).
“He who shall muse on these moldering ruins, / And deeply ponder this darkling life, / Must brood on old legends” (80-82).

9. Ubi Sunt
Latin for “Where are…?” from the phrase “Ubi sunt ante nos fuerunt?” or “Where are those who went before us?”
A motif in which the question “Where are…?” is asked several times.
There is an elegiac tone to the questions, and the topic is usually one of mortality.

10. Ubi Sunt
Examples: (The first is a different translation from “The Wanderer” the second is from The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers.)
Where is the horse gone? Where the rider? Where the giver of treasure? Where are the seats at the feast? Where are the revels in the hall? [...]How that time has passed away, grown dark under cover of night, as if it had never been.
Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountains. Like wind in the meadow.
The days have gone down in the west. Behind the hills, into shadow. How did it come to this?